#87 How to handle HIGH END Real Estate Clients with DUSTY BAKER.

As a Santa Barbara native, Dusty Baker’s established reputation and knowledge of the local market seamlessly integrates into a successful real estate career which includes designations such as “Agent of the Year” and “Top 40 Under 40.” For nearly a decade, Dusty has been serving the real estate needs of clients in Santa Barbara, Montecito, Goleta and Carpinteria.

Dusty prides himself in truly connecting with his clients to ensure their complete satisfaction with his representation, which is one of the many reasons he is the area’s #1 rated real estate agent on Yelp. Client reviews consistently showcase themes of Dusty’s professionalism, caring personality, and local familiarity.

Throughout his tenure in real estate, Dusty has educated and influenced thousands of colleagues in the industry through his speaking and writing. His writing portfolio includes penning articles for top real estate news source Inman News and authoring the foreword for the Amazon best-selling book, From The Top. He has also spoken as a marketing specialist on a national level at conferences and real estate offices.

Dusty emphasizes robust marketing, skillful negotiating, uncompromised discretion, and concierge-level service. Buying and selling luxury real estate deserves nothing but the finest attention to detail, both in business practice and client experience. Dusty strives for excellence in every aspect of his business.

 

Transcript

Stefan: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show Respect the Grind with Stefan Aarnio. This is the show where we interview people who achieve mastery and freedom through discipline. We interview entrepreneurs, athletes, authors, artists, real estate investors, anyone who has achieved mastery, and examined what it took to get there.

Stefan: Today on the show, we have a new friend of mine, Dusty Baker. He’s a Santa Barbara native, Top 40 Under 40. He’s in the luxury real estate niche, and I’m really excited to have him in the luxury niche, because we get so many real estate people on this show, and it’s super cool to have somebody in that super elite niche. He’s also a speaker, he’s also a marketing consultant. Dusty, welcome to the show, Respect the Grind. Thanks so much for joining me.

Dusty: Hey, thanks for having me. This should be fun.

Stefan: Awesome. Yeah, I’m sorry I can’t say Santa Barbara. I don’t know why I can’t say it.

Dusty: Santa Barbara native.

Stefan: I can’t say mash-chew-shits. Massachusetts. I can’t say that either.

Stefan: Awesome. Dusty, for the people at home who don’t know who you are, how’d you get started in the business you’re in?

Dusty: Like you mentioned, stuttering over it, I’m a native here, and it’s an incredible place if you’ve never been to Santa Barbara or heard of it. It’s a really … It’s a small little town, about 100,000 people here, but the surrounding areas that make Santa Barbara up are about 200,000-250,000 people. It’s a coastal beach town about an hour north of LA. It’s radically expensive, it just is what it is. Montecito is the little portion most people know. Oprah has this huge compound. Estimates are it’s worth probably $200 million at this point.

Stefan: Wow.

Dusty: Ellen DeGeneres buys and sells [inaudible 00:01:30]. We just have a lot of the celebrity crowd as well. But it’s an area that’s very different from LA, so it’s this whole other vibe. But it’s very expensive. I thought, since I’m going to stick around here, I better get into an industry that … my pay is directly proportionate to paying to live here.

Dusty: It’s just a great lifestyle. I’m a surfer, I like to hike, get outside. It’s a fantastic place, so when I was young and getting my business degree, actually, I was going to a university locally, and I got an internship for a real estate office. Unpaid intern, I worked for every agent there doing just the stupidest crap you could imagine, but I learned a lot. I met a lot of people, and that office really became my family. It’s kind of fun, because instead of the competitive vibe, we still maintained a great family feel even though a lot of us are at different companies and we’re competing, obviously. It was just a great, great entrance, and that was over a decade ago, so unpaid interns, you’re growing and growing, really organically, actually, led me here. I loved it. I wouldn’t change it for the world. I had lots of fun.

Stefan: Wow. Yeah, well, it’s amazing. They say riche in the niche, or rich in the niche, and you’ve got a really cool niche, niche there. I was down in LA in May, and I’m from Canada, up here in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I was down at Ty Lopez’s house, actually, in May. I was at Bel Air or wherever he lives, and we went up to Orange County for a bit, and it’s incredible, the money and the wealth there in California, right around Orange County, LA, Santa Barbara. It’s absolutely incredible. Why is there so much freaking money over there between the mountains and the coast? Why do all these rich people want to live there?

Dusty: The quality of life is sky high, which … It’s funny, actually. Besides the fact that it’s just very nice to live at the beach with 70 degree year round weather, I’ve had a lot of clients I’ve represented from … Actually, Denver was two of them, and people around the country, Michigan, where their doctors prescribed them to move somewhere like Santa Barbara, because you can live so much longer. Your body doesn’t take a beating like it does in the winters or in the summers. It’s a really great quality of life. In fact, Santa Barbara consistently ranks as one of the top cities in the country to live, and actually, they did a study of the longevity of life, and Santa Barbara is number one. We won by five days or something like that.

Stefan: Wow.

Dusty: But we have the longest average lifespan here. So really, it just comes down to that. People just want really nice quality of life. It starts with the weather, and then it goes to the type of life. Orange County is very different, even from Santa Barbara. My wife, I was living in Newport when we met. She now lives, obviously, in Santa Barbara with me. But we go and get breakfast burritos, and you see 20 Lamborghinis go by. People are driving their net worth. They like to show off their net worth. Santa Barbara, totally the opposite. You could get a billionaire driving up in a 1981 Mercedes or a truck. So, very, very, very different. We’re a very casual affluent here. Orange County’s definitely different.

Stefan: You said something there, I was almost going to give you a gong for it too, but I was like, eh. It was, doctors prescribe for people to move there so they’ll live longer. Man, that is crazy. I’m going to Costa Rica-

Dusty: It’s real nice.

Stefan: Dude, that’s incredible. Tomorrow I’m going to Costa Rica, I’m flying from Canada to Costa Rica, and I’m going to live in the jungle for 40 days on just water, water [crosstalk 00:04:59].

Dusty: Oh, wow.

Stefan: Yeah. It’s something I do. And it’s crazy ’cause the guy runs the fasting center. He wants everyone to be a raw vegan, raw fruit kind of life. And I was like, man, when I go back to Canada, it’s so cold. I can’t stay warm, and I’m losing too much weight, and all these things. And he goes, well, dude. Just move. And I’m like, bro, maybe I should. After you say that, moving down there for the health, maybe I should move down to Cali or something. It’s so beautiful. I was looking on your Instagram. It seems almost like a Barbie and Ken charmed life down there where everyone is beautiful and the sun in shining and it’s just so nice.

Stefan: Dust, tell me this, man. Top 40 Under 40. What does that mean?

Dusty: There’s a … Pacific Coast Business Times does something. It’s not just real estate related, which is why I’m really proud of it. It just looks at the top 40 under 40 business professionals in the Santa Barbara County region, and actually, I won that … God, four years ago. I was 26 when I won that, so I felt really good, ’cause there were people at 39 winning, because they were technically under 40. So, really proud to win that. They just want to highlight people who excel in their fields.

Stefan: Wow, that’s great, man. Well, congrats. I think it’s super cool. I’ve won some awards. I won Rich Dad International Hall of Fame 2014, which was cool, for Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

Dusty: That’s rad, yeah.

Stefan: Thanks, man. But I’m not top 40 under 40. I’m 32, I’ve gotta get on that. Tell me this, Dusty. One of the things I think is super cool … You’re the luxury niche, so how much are these homes you’re selling, typically … How much do they cost, usually?

Dusty: Right now, I don’t focus only in the crazy high end. I have a $5 million listing, a $12 million listing, a few other up in that range. But I also have a $3 million home and a $1.5 million listing and some buyers in between. So define luxury. When I talk to agents in Tulsa, Oklahoma, anything over $600,000 is a mega mansion. Here, anything under $1 million is a piece of junk. So in terms of the national scale, the national median sale price is $225,000. So the fact that I basically don’t have any sales under $1 million is very, very high. I’m focusing a lot more on probably the $4-20 million range.

Stefan: Okay. Dude, I’m going to give you a gong for that. That’s just cool as shit to me, because I live in Winnipeg. Do you even know where Winnipeg is?

Dusty: I’ve heard of it. I haven’t been there.

Stefan: Yeah. Winnipeg Jets, they almost won the NHL last year. They made it to the final four against Vegas, so that puts Winnipeg on the map. But Winnipeg is like the Indianapolis of Canada. We’re like the Indianapolis. If you go to Dallas and drive straight north, you end up in Winnipeg. It’s crazy, ’cause we got a hardcore value market here. Average home is about $320,000, and then the market caps out at $2 million. If you go to $2 million in Winnipeg, you’re done. Nobody is going to … There is a lady here, I’ve talked about this story before. There was a lady here and she got $100 million in a divorce. I guess she divorced a construction guy or something. Got $100 million, and she built herself a $14 million California palace in the arctic Winnipeg. It’s winter eight months of the year here.

Dusty: And she sold it for, like, three.

Stefan: Right. Dude, exactly. She gets $100 million, she builds a $14 million palace, $13.9 million, and then it sells for $3.9. The market just handled her. But the moral of the story is it wasn’t her money anyway, so she ended up losing it.

Stefan: Tell me, what does somebody get for $20 million down in Santa Barbara?

Dusty: You get a lot. What’s interesting, actually, is that obviously, Santa Barbara, Montecito, is very, very expensive. We’re very, very cheap compared to other luxury markets, though. If you look at what’s going on in LA, for instance, there are $100 million sales. We just don’t see that here. And to buy something in [Bretwood 00:08:56], for instance, you’re not spending less than $10 million unless you’re buying a piece of crap. That’s remarkable to me. Bretwood is so expensive, whereas Montecito, you get about $5 million, you’re going to get a very, very nice house. For $20 million, you’re getting an incredible, incredible house. There have been a few sales this year between the $16-25 million.

Dusty: It’s remarkable. It’s amazing. It would be on a Homes Magazine, or on one of those inspirational Instagram luxury homes profiles. You’d see it and you’d think, wow, that is a spectacular, spectacular home. 10,000-15,000 square feet, one or two guest houses, pool, tennis court, views. For $20 million, you’re getting something off the charts.

Stefan: Right, right. It’s almost like a compound.

Dusty: Yeah, pretty much. Yeah.

Stefan: Let me ask, for $20 million, are you getting a helicopter pad or no helicopter pad?

Dusty: No, probably not. If it’s a helicopter you’re really interested in, most people with a $20 million house or even $10, they can have a helicopter, and people prefer that actually, and the pad is easy. The permitting, basically impossible. The neighbors are not fans of helicopters. If you had $20 million, would you want to live in a house where freaking helicopters are going over? No. So it’s one of those not in my backyard things. Once in a while, there’s a property that actually has the permitting and the zoning to land a helicopter, but that’s pretty tough these days. Sometimes people just do it without any …

Stefan: If you’re that rich, you just pay the fines, man.

Dusty: Yeah, exactly.

Stefan: Okay, let’s talk about … A $20 million house is cool, man. I get it. In the States, if you go to New York, there’s $200 million condos that sell, some absolute retarded … What kind of person is dropping that kind of coin? I know you dropped some names like Oprah, Ellen DeGeneres … Let’s forget about the mega celebrities. What kind of “average dude” would be buying those kinds of homes? Business owners? Who buys these homes, man?

Dusty: I will say, I dropped the celebrity names. That’s usually why people know about Montecito, but the average wealth in Montecito is people you have no idea who they are, and that’s what’s really opened my eyes growing up here, is you see celebrities that are … At one point, their net worth is way higher than this now, but I remember at one point there was an article that said Kim Kardashian’s net wealth is $40 million, and I was like, ha. That’s a joke for most families-

Stefan: Well, she made a porno tape. She’s famous for having a porno tape and having a big butt. I don’t get that, man.

Dusty: No, that’s crazy in and of itself. And even sane people are thinking that the $40 million is extremely high, which it is, don’t get me wrong. I don’t have $40 million. But most of the big time residents in Montecito and Santa Barbara are complete no names that have way more money than that. We have 14 billionaires just in Montecito. That’s a big number for a small town, and a lot of people worth hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. You would not recognize their name. They’re the average guy who … There’s one gentleman, I won’t say his name, but he invented and patented a chip that’s in every single cell phone. That dude’s doing real well. There’s a guy with one of my listings right now, like I said, I think it’s 11 99 [inaudible 00:12:15]. The showings that we’ve had have been businessmen. It’s been real estate developers, some Middle Eastern money, some Middle Eastern billionaires. So we get a lot of the no name wealthy people. There’s a lot of people making a lot of money that are not celebrities. A lot. And that’s what we get the majority of here.

Stefan: That’s cool, man. I love … My background is I came from flipping homes, and I would go get a couple rich guys to back all my stuff. I’d get a couple rich guys and they’d back all my deals, and I’d buy it, fix it, sell it, whatever. Now I train people to do it as well.

Stefan: Let me ask you this, Dusty. How do you handle the affluent and the wealthy versus maybe just the regular person? Is there a protocol for that? Do you get out the white glove service? How are these people different than the average Joe, and how are they the same?

Dusty: The funny thing is they’re very, very, very similar. I got in thinking, oh, maybe the crazy, crazy high end buyer, seller, they’re the ones who are complete jerks, they just use and abuse you, just all the stereotypes. It’s just not the case. Some of them are, some of them aren’t, the same way that the average Joe Blow, some of them are jerks, some of them are nice. It’s exactly the same thing in the ultra, ultra wealthy.

Dusty: And frankly, I don’t know … This is going to sound so … Dusty’s tooting his own horn. I don’t know how to do anything but white glove service, which is why I push the high end, because the level of service I give, I wouldn’t be able to give it to as many clients in, let’s say, the $500,000 range, because I wouldn’t be able to sell enough homes to make enough money. So that’s why my whole career, I’ve really been focusing and pushing the luxury realm, because there’s enough profit margin to do that.

Dusty: When there’s profit margin to fly to Europe on a moment’s notice to get a document … I’ve never had to do that but I’ve used that as an example. When the product margin’s there, I like that. I much prefer the white glove service. I really want to take care of people in a remarkable way, because I’m always fascinated by that. Last week I was in Hawaii, actually, at the St. Regis with my wife, and the service was excellent. Excellent, excellent. We’d show up at the pool, and they’d say, hello, Mr. and Mrs. Baker, and they’d go and set up two lounge chairs. There was eight towels involved. One at the top, the bottom. My wife is pregnant, so they’d roll up another towel, put a pillow behind her neck. Just unbelievable service.

Stefan: Yeah.

Dusty: Wow. That’s amazing. I don’t think that I’m so cool that I deserve that in all my life, but I’d certainly love to give that. So, yeah. There’s no difference for me in my business of really, really high end to the [inaudible 00:14:37], but once again, that’s why I’m really focusing my attention in only the high end, because I really prefer that method of business, which is why you probably had other realtors on your show that had big teams, 20 person teams.

Stefan: Right.

Dusty: I have zero interest in that, because my clients, I’m marketing Dusty Baker and my experience. I don’t feel right having people sign on for the Dusty Baker experience and getting minion number six actually negotiating on their behalf. I want to be involved in all the high level negotiations, conversations, showings, everything, and the only way to do that and maintain a certain volume in sales is obviously to increase the average sale price.

Dusty: There are certain differences in terms of expectations. I had a client a couple months ago, and this person was a noteworthy person, I’ll put it that way. And they had some expectations that probably the average person wouldn’t. I’ll put it that way. And you have to accommodate things that you may not want to typically accommodate. But at the end of the day, if you actually look at, frankly, how much money I’d be making through that deal, it’s not an unrealistic request that this person would want A, B, C, and D, even if it seems a little ridiculous. I’m working for a lot of money here. So it’s not that unworthy.

Stefan: What are some of the things, Dusty … I’m from Winnipeg up here. An agent will get you a box of cookies and a bottle of wine or something when they buy or sell a house. You get a gift card to a steak house or something. You mentioned flying to Europe. Obviously that’s pretty extreme. What are some of the normal Dusty Baker experience things that you do that give that white glove service so the customer’s like, wow. I’ve totally gotta refer Dusty to my other rich buddy, or whatever?

Dusty: It’s funny you mention that, the closing gifts. That’s reason number 26 why I prefer the industry that I’m in, ’cause I get some of the stupidest gifts ever, and I get pitched by certain people, certain companies, hey, you really should send all your clients this gift, and I’m thinking, I’m not going to send that in a million years. I’m not going to brand a … I can’t even think of an example. A cheap knife set. I’m just not going to do that. I’d be embarrassed to do it.

Dusty: A part of the white glove service … I’m showing a property to a high end buying in a specific part or area that this person was familiar with. We were leaving, and I said, I don’t know if you two, this person, their spouse, have plans tonight. There’s a certain restaurant I think would be phenomenal. Do you have time? They said, actually, we do have time. I said, just get in your car. By the time you get there, you’ll have reservations, you’ll be taken care of.

Dusty: So they got in their car. I called ahead, they were booked, and I said, listen, you really need to make this happen for me right now. This is who I am, this is who I work for. You have to make this work, and they made it work, which … Fantastic. I gave them my credit cards, it doesn’t matter what the order, it’s on me. That’s the type of experience. I really want people to feel the experience of, hey, I’m in Montecito. I’m in San [inaudible 00:17:36] Valley. I’m in [inaudible 00:17:38]. And I think that that’s really, really nice, and people get to not even have to make decisions. People just point and say, go eat here, I’m paying for this, order this, and they get to just sit back and relax and experience a lifestyle that we know that they’ll enjoy here.

Stefan: You said a big word there, lifestyle, and it sounds like you got the everything’s handled part of the experience down. That’s such a premium. You go to Amazon.com, you push the button, everything’s handled. It’s a one button experience. One thing I’ve done with my clients is we do a lot of seminars and training of investors in my company, and we came out with an all-inclusive package. So the flight’s included, the limo’s included, the dinner’s included. We drive you to a property that we flipped or someone else flipped, and it’s amazing, because people pay such a premium. We have people, they’re so happy to pay $2,000, $4,000 for that experience. And then we strip it all down, they don’t even want to pay $300 for the base experience. It’s amazing how as soon as you can say, everything’s handled, one price, one mystery price, how everybody just gets on board with that. Would you agree?

Dusty: Absolutely. You hit something else, too. Different than what you said is people will pay anything for the right experience. The number almost doesn’t matter.

Stefan: That’s a gong. We got an instant replay of that. Instant replay, one more time.

Dusty: People will pay anything for the right experience.

Stefan: Damn.

Dusty: Especially in the high end. Let’s say we’re in the $100 million. Do you care if a steak is $50 or $200? Absolutely, no, you don’t. Who cares at all about that difference? You just want quality, you just want the experience. So, specifically in high end real estate, they need that experience, because no one needs a fifth house in Montecito. Absolutely not. I’m dealing with a very different buyer than, hey, my wife is pregnant, we live in a one bedroom condo, we just need to buy anything with two rooms.

Stefan: Right.

Dusty: So if you’re not selling that lifestyle, then I don’t know what you’re doing. In the same way that you said everything’s taken care of, people want that luxurious experience of … They don’t want the decision fatigue, I should say. They don’t want to try and figure out the area. Why are you-

Stefan: One more gong, dude, one more, ’cause decision fatigue. Damn, bro, stop hitting on me like that. Tell us about decision fatigue.

Dusty: Okay. I go to a restaurant. One of my favorite restaurants, it’s actually 40 minutes away from here. It’s called the [Santa Ana’s 00:20:05] Valley Kitchen. Santa Ana’s Kitchen.

Stefan: Right.

Dusty: And they have this world-renowned chef, they’re fantastic. And part of their lunch special usually is there’s just, this is what we’re making. There’s no, I’m going to order this, this, or this. This is what we’re cooking, and I love that crap. I’m going to show up … world class restaurant. You are the world class chef. You tell me what to eat. Why am I going into a restaurant that’s fantastic and I’m telling you what you should make me? That’s ridiculous. It should be completely the opposite.

Stefan: Right.

Dusty: And the same thing when I’m showing someone an area. They don’t want to … I can’t wait for them to express what they want to see, or the experience they want to have. I need to give them that experience and make them see what’s going on and show them what they should see, because they don’t even know what they don’t know. They don’t want to make those decisions. If I’m going to … I always think about myself. I love New York City, I’d love to own a flat out there at some point and do sort of a bi-coastal … Not selling, this would be later on in life. I would think, okay. If I’m flying to New York City, my realtor’s picking me up, what experience would I want, I just want to sit back. You show me New York, it’s your backyard. You show me the restaurants, you show me what area I should by in. You show me the building. I’m not the expert here.

Dusty: You can’t, at the risk of sounding too aggressive with them, you have to say, this is what you want.

Stefan: Right. Right. I love what Henry Ford used to say. He said that if I made what my customers wanted, they would’ve wanted faster horses. Instead he made the car. Or Steve Jobs, he invented the iPad. Nobody knew that an iPad was coming, nobody knew they wanted that. But you’re the taste maker, you’re the brand experience, you’re the expert, and I love how you’re like, hey, man. I’m the doctor, here’s the medicine, buckle up. People pay premiums for that, man. That’s amazing.

Stefan: Let me ask you this, Dusty. You’re in the pretty high end, relative to the country of the United States, relative to the country of Canada, a pretty high end market. How do you find these high end clients? ‘Cause that’s something that I think everybody has this fear about. They’re like, oh, I want to get more business, I want to get better clients, I want to get wealthier clients. How do you go about prospecting these wealthier clients?

Dusty: The low end … The typical real estate, if you were to go … I use Tulsa, Oklahoma all the time, ’cause I have a buddy out there. [crosstalk 00:22:21]

Stefan: Right. Bro, I love Tulsa. Let’s love on it, man.

Dusty: Yeah, yeah. Let’s say you’re there and you join Keller Williams or something, and they say, how do you grow your business? You should farm a geographical neighborhood, you should mail that neighborhood, door knock that neighborhood, because that’s how you get to know people in that physical, geographic space. Okay. That’s fantastic.

Dusty: The high end doesn’t have that quite as much. It’s more of a group of people not in a physical location, but in a network of people. So the easiest way, obviously, is to infiltrate. That’s a terrible word, but infiltrate a network, because most of my business is referral based. You do a bang up job on one person, and it gets out there. But that’s why something like a country club would make sense, because it’s not that they all live in that specific area, but they all congregate there. Certain types of industries like the equestrian industry, obviously, gather truly affluent people. A yacht club, yachting, high end activities.

Dusty: Also, Santa Barbara specifically, I can’t say the same thing for your market. But Santa Barbara, a lot of people have second, third, fourth, fifth homes. They have a little pied-a-terre out here. So for me to go about getting these clients, I have to do a decent amount of travel and tremendous amount of networking around the country in feeder markets. Our number one feeder market, of course, is Los Angeles. But San Francisco, New York, Palm Beach are big, big markets. I do a tremendous amount of networking with agents in these feeder markets, the financial advisors, the attorneys. A lot of homes are sold because someone passed away, unfortunately.

Dusty: There’s a lot of ways to getting … It’s extremely different than the … for lack of a better term, the lower end real estate. I really compare the two as one is soccer, one is baseball. It’s different sports altogether. What marketing would work in this area would kill you in this area, and the same way … If you took this marketing and put it towards here, it would kill you. It’s radically different. One’s not better than the other. It’s very, very different. You have to focus on client experience, it’s different, the actual terms … marketing and listings to get in front of buyers is completely different, and certainly the networking is different.

Stefan: Yeah. It’s a high trust game. Rich people, they really value their privacy. There’s a great book, I don’t know if you read it, or maybe you should read it. It’s Dan Kennedy’s Marketing to the Affluent.

Dusty: Really?

Stefan: And they talk about the affluent people, they value their privacy. They have fetishes. They’ll have something they’ll spend any amount of money on. I just ordered a $450 gold pen. I want this gold pen. I write my plans with my gold pen, I want my $450 gold pen. That’s my fetish. But they also have things that they won’t spend anything on. They’ll still get the no name canned tuna. So you’ve gotta know their fetish, and there’s a real trust based game. It’s interesting. You’re talking about, there’s the high end marketing and the low end marketing. In our game, we’re buying a lot of wholesale real estate, so messed up stuff. We do a handwritten letter on yellow, horrible loose leaf in black Sharpie and stuff it in a mailbox, and the low end, messed up wholesale buyer loves that message.

Stefan: But then we’re doing high trust sales, so we have a book, a nice book with gold foil on it, it looks high trust. It’s so interesting. The high trust, low trust. Another thing you said that I thought was really cool was going into the sports, and you’re wearing a sport coat, and the suit and sport coat comes from equestrian. That’s where that fashion comes from, and it’s interesting when you look at history and you look at fashion, if you go to the ghetto in, let’s say, the Bronx or something, and you see guys wearing Adidas snap pants or they’re wearing some basketball stuff, sport clothes have always been a symbol of status because it means you have enough resources to play sports and have leisure.

Stefan: It’s so interesting, what you said there about sports and getting to the good gyms and the good country clubs and the equestrian, ’cause that’s where they all congregate, right? Do you ever do charities or churches or anything like that?

Dusty: I am involved in my local church, and I’ve gotten a tremendous amount of business from that. But I never go that angle, I think that is absolutely the most classless way to get business, is to be that guy at church. I just happen to be a trusted resource. A lot of people go to me and that’s fantastic. I’m never marketing at church.

Dusty: Charities, though, absolutely. You mentioned if people are affluent enough to have the spare time to do sports, like you mentioned, in Santa Barbara it’s the spare time to get involved, join a board, be a part of the nonprofit. People typically are in Santa Barbara … I keep referencing my market. Other markets could be totally different. But the average person coming to Santa Barbara is someone who has that feeling of, you know what? I’m going to join this community, I’m going to make this community, I want to be a valuable citizen. We get some good, good people here, which is fantastic. But, yeah. Charities are fantastic for that.

Dusty: I was even chatting with my business coach yesterday, and that’s a bigger component of this 2019 marketing, is being a lot more involved in sponsoring charity, actually, which is great. If we’re going to spend marketing dollars, that’s not a bad way to do it.

Stefan: Yeah. If you go to a dinner that’s $150 a plate or $300 a plate and there’s a celebrity or something-

Dusty: Or much more.

Stefan: Yeah, your market, I’m talking Winnipeg numbers here. Yeah, man, your plates out there could be $1,000 a plate or more. What’s so interesting about that, whether you look at that from a sacred kind of look, biblical or something, or you look at it from a secular view, even in the book 48 Laws of Power, they talk about … despise the free lunch, and the people who are making it, they’re giving back, they congregate together. Charity is a real powerful thing for meeting people who … They’ve got time, they’ve got money, they’ve got resources, and your message might work with them.

Dusty: Sure, sure, absolutely. But you can’t be the guy that’s clearly there for business. They can sniff it out pretty quickly. So it has to be something you’re actually passionate about. That’s the other “problem”. I thought about this a lot in the past, and I’ve been approached for certain nonprofit boards, and I’ve been like, you know what? I think that could be good for business, but I would burn out so fast. I have no passion and I probably would look like the guy that’s just doing this for business.

Dusty: So I … I keep getting emails. Let me … volume off, okay. I just joined, actually, a board for some other cause that I just have a ton of passion about. I actually bring something to the table, it’s a great group. So I’m also trying to be wise about that, because if you just start spreading yourself too thin or doing something that isn’t true to your heart, it doesn’t work out, it shows through.

Stefan: Right. You’ve gotta be congruent. That’s the main thing with branding, it’s gotta be congruent, it’s gotta go together, the curtain’s gotta match the carpet.

Stefan: Let me ask this, Dusty. Switching gears a little bit, you do some speaking, you do some writing. Tell us a little bit about the content you put out there, and what are you an expert in, your writing and your speaking?

Dusty: It’s funny. I got involved in that … I got a good … I like to surround myself with really intelligent people. Why not? It’s just a lot more fun for me. I have a tough time chatting with people who are just doing absolutely nothing with their life. What do you talk about at that point? So a lot of my friends are radically driven, really intelligent, really successful people.

Dusty: One of my friends that runs a marketing company, he’s just one of these incredible, incredible minds. So, starting years and years and years ago, he said, you have to get out there and start blogging. He said, I know you have a big social media presence, you’ve got all this. But if you don’t own that domain, let’s say Instagram goes out of business tomorrow. Where are you? Whereas if you own that website, that blog, you capture that audience.

Dusty: So, fine, I’ll do that. But I’m not doing the normal real estate blog where it’s like, I’m your neighborhood realtor! I thought it was cheesy, even though it probably works. I’m going to go the opposite route. I’m going to actually start writing, blogging, towards educational … to other agents, because I’ve been really blessed. When I did intern early on, it happened to be for a group of really top agents, and then I had a mentor early on that had been selling real estate longer than I’d been alive, and I’ve just been surrounded by this incredible, incredible group of people who have helped me so much, so I have a lot more than 10 years of wisdom in me because of everything that’s been passed along.

Dusty: So I said, okay, I’ll start writing. I started writing articles, and started getting a pretty big following, actually. Because of that, I ended up writing for Inman News. Inman News, for the time, that’s the largest real estate news source, Inman News. I’ve read Inman. It’s fantastic. It’s like, yeah, it’s amazing. I got involved in that, writing for them. But the first article, I said, you know what? I’m going to go in, bring a bazooka to a knife fight. This has gotta be good.

Dusty: So I did some backend analytics with my friend who owns this marketing company, and said, hey, we can run the stats, even on their website, what the most popular articles have been, the topics, the this, the that. We did all this research, and it turned out at the time … This was a while ago … It was around tagging, it was around social media, a lot of questions about that, about what to do with marketing. So I said, you know what, I’m going to write about that. I wrote about how I grew my Instagram portfolio and how I’m getting actually a lot of business from it, and just the real practicalities that no one else was going over, and it just exploded.

Dusty: It ended up being the second most read article they’ve ever had. It’s since been beaten, obviously, but right when it came out, it was just really, really, really popular, and that kind of pigeonholed me a bit. I wrote articles on a lot, and I wrote the foreword for a book called From the Top, which ended up being an Amazon bestseller, and that was more just … It was just a foreword, so I was chatting about what this author spoke about. I’ve done speaking on other components as well, but a tremendous amount went around online marketing, social media marketing, and things like that.

Dusty: It’s funny, because it’s not necessarily something I love talking about. I actually much prefer to talk about, hey, how do we up our game at the white glove service? How do we be straight up concierge, how do we be the most trusted resource where it’s total anonymity for our clients, things like that. I really prefer that, the Four Seasons approach, but usually it ends up being about online marketing.

Stefan: You know what my favorite part of that story is, Dusty, is where you went in with your marketing guy and analyzed what the market wanted. That one step is such a pro step. That’s such a smart step, and I think everybody, when they get into marketing, get into business, they just start putting out whatever they want. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t. Like Donna Karen, DKNY, she was making clothes for her baby and her husband, and then somehow she ended up with a clothing line. Sometimes it works out, most of the time, it doesn’t.

Stefan: But you went in and you figured out, what does the audience want, and you delivered exactly what they want. There’s a huge lesson in there for the people at home. Why’d you have that instinct to go in like that and not just write something from your ego that you wanted?

Dusty: 100% from my buddy. His name is Seth, he runs Nexa Marketing, N-E-X-A Marketing, and it was all him, 100%. He was even the one saying … because my website got pretty big, and he said, okay. You’ve maxed it out. You know how you get even bigger? Instead of creating your own parade and gathering people and calling city officials and pulling permits, why don’t you just find another parade and jump in front and start marching? It’s like, oh, okay, I’d much rather do that.

Dusty: He said reach out to other top blogs and start writing for them. He said, everyone on top websites, their job is to write. You’d be doing their job for them. They’ll take you. I said, okay, great. I researched all the top real estate websites. In News, number one, absolutely number one, and I thought, I could never get in there. I’m going to go for the lower end, which is the lamest approach. I went after the lower end once, and they all said no. It was like, crap. He was like, why don’t you go through Inman? I was like, oh, fine. So I went after Inman and they said yes. Like, oh my gosh.

Dusty: His name is Seth. He said, okay, now that you’ve got your foot in the door, this has to be good, and I mean good. It was his idea. I’m going to run the backend analytics, we’re going to go ever everything, figure out what’s worked really, really well. And then I wrote the article. I had he and another friend that I’ve done a lot of brainstorming with go through a couple rounds. It really was just a fantastic article. You only get one first impression and I wanted it to be spectacular, and it worked out really well, and it created this … Listen, that was just a one time thing. I ended up getting to know everyone at Inman, on the staff, the conferences, speaking. It’s a wonderful family. It’s kind of real estate meets TED Talks. I have the utmost respect for them. It’s amazing. I was glad I was able to connect in that way.

Stefan: I love that story, I think it’s a great strategy, and I think anybody at home could do that.

Dusty: Sure.

Stefan: Anybody could do what you did there. But the way that you and your marketing guy masterminded that is just genius. Writing that one good article and getting that thing placed properly … because content is one thing, placing it, it’s another thing to get traffic. Then you mentioned you got on some speaking stages from that, right?

Dusty: Yeah.

Stefan: Okay, awesome. Are those paid gigs or they just let you sell stuff? How did that work?

Dusty: No, I didn’t even take it that far, to be honest. I probably could’ve had products to sell. I never even got that far. It was just unpaid, but it just grew my presence in a really spectacular way. A lot of people even ask, on the lower level, they ask, how do you have 15,000 followers on Instagram, and I say, years of hard work and a ton of speaking engagements. And a good number will ask, how do you get all these great referrals from agents all around the country? I say, years of hard work, travel, and speaking engagements. How incredible is it to get in front of 2,000 people and be seen as an expert? You would know, look at what you do. You’re on stage and people just assume you’re the expert. You could be the stupidest guy in the world, but you’re on stage, you’re the expert.

Stefan: Yeah, man. I love that. And I’ve got a similar background. I blogged for 120 days when I started. I did a blog every day, and I shared it on social media every day. It was a consistent blog, it was a 1,000 word blog. It’s crazy, because that turned into speaking engagements. People wanted me to come speak at their clubs. Then that turned into winning awards. Somehow I was visible. Then I started winning awards, people started giving me awards, and then people started, after the awards, I started getting calls for coaching. I got calls for classes and products, and then I turned those blogs into a book. It’s crazy. Now I’ve got five books and an international coaching company. But it’s crazy how that one little article or that one little thing can just snowball and snowball and snowball and just keep going.

Dusty: Have you seen the videos? There’s a video on Facebook … No, on YouTube … and it talks about the physics of dominoes. I’m sure that you’ve seen it. But a domino can knock over something one and a half times its size, so they have a video where it’s like a little piece of gum or something, and they push that over, and seven or eight dominoes later, it’s pushing over a 100 pound piece of marble that’s 1,000 times its height, and that’s what it is. You get that one little domino going, and then you go 150%, 150%, and just a few steps down the road, you’re a lot further along than you thought.

Stefan: Bro, you just got yourself a gong for that. That’s a great concept, man. I love that.

Dusty: Now, let me ask you. You said you wrote 120 blog posts in 120 days. I think people listening, they would say, oh, that’s not too bad. I could probably do that. Okay. Well, where were you in life that time? I imagine you had work and bills to pay. How did you fit in those 120 articles? How did you have the bandwidth and the structure and the discipline to do that? People don’t understand how hard that is.

Stefan: Yeah. Well, I was broke, man. I was flipping, I don’t know, maybe a dozen houses a year. I had some rental properties. I remember I went to conferences and they’d say, you gotta put out content, you’ve gotta get your web presence, get your brand together. So I was like, okay, okay. I remember I started a little website for $7. I got a Weebly website for $7, and I got a domain and I put a picture of myself up there, and then I looked at my site, and I’m like, man, my site sucks. There’s nothing on it.

Stefan: So I said, okay, man. Every night before I go to bed, I’m going to write a blog, and I can’t go to bed ’til I write a blog. So I’d write a blog, I’d post it, put a picture up, and every night, I just did that. I said, I’m going to take some seminar notes, I’m going to turn those seminar notes into a blog. And it just consistently did that, and now I’ve written five books. My latest book, Hard Times Create Strong Men, is 150,000 words. It’s a big-ass book, and I wrote it in 11 … because that was shift writing.

Stefan: I’m a writer by trade, and I say to people, look. If you want to do this, make it a shift. You show up to your shift, and the best times to write, I find, Dusty, is first thing in the morning out of bed when you’re drowsy, or last thing at night before going to bed when you’re drowsy. You get in that mid state where you’re almost drunk, and you can just type and type and just write because you’re not judging yourself.

Stefan: So I think the best thing you can do is make it a shift. You’re just like, I’m going to show up to work for my shift at the end of the day or beginning of the day. You write something, maybe you read something right before so you’ve got something to think about, and then just go.

Dusty: Yeah. What I love about that story and why I wanted to hear a bit more is that I think one of your prompt questions I read on the piece of paper you sent over was, what do you think being an entrepreneur has led you to see and to experience life and things like that? And first of all, I will say that I think real estate is barely getting in the door of entrepreneurship, I really do. I think what you’re doing and what other people do, actually creating a real different business out of nothing, is very, very different. Real estate agents and financial advisors already have a framework. They still have to kill what they want to eat. So I think we get in the door, but barely.

Stefan: Right.

Dusty: I have that much more respect for [inaudible 00:40:03], because I know how hard it’s been for certain times in my life, when you have to … No one’s paying you. People don’t get that. They think, oh, somebody just pays you? I’m like, no. They take money out of our paycheck. But they don’t pay me. It’s given me this incredible perspective to even hear a story like, hey, I wrote 120 articles. People, you don’t know how hard that is until you’ve tried to do it, period. I bet you couldn’t even get someone to run one mile for 120 straight days. You couldn’t get people to do anything for 120 straight days. But look at what kind of fruit you can see from your labor. People just will not do it for the long run. They’ll do it for four days and then they’ll quit.

Dusty: So I have the most respect for things like that, and it doesn’t have to be rocket science, but that’s what being an entrepreneur is like. You do things, and people … How many people asked you, why are you doing this? And then you have to say, well, I don’t necessarily know. I’m laying a foundation for an area that I don’t even know if I’m going to build on, but I’m just going to do it, because why not? It’s better to have a foundation than not to.

Dusty: But how many people asked you why you’re doing this?

Stefan: Well, I do it for … The real deep reason is my parents divorced when I was 17, and my dad wasn’t making enough money, and he was an entrepreneur, but never educated himself. I’m here creating an education company to try to save my dad. Some deep, deep, psychological stuff. So I’m obsessed with education, I’m obsessed with books, I’m obsessed with training and coaching. We’ve got … Some of our students are Canadian investor of the year in Real Estate World Magazine. We’ve got some guys buying, fixing, and selling 30 homes a year. We’ve got some guys who are 27 years old, they’ve done 82 properties, as an investor.

Stefan: So it’s really rewarding, it’s crazy. I don’t have kids, so this is my thing, is educating and helping people, and what you asked is a great question. Why do you do this? This is a great question for anybody, because you’re going to get hit with buckets and buckets of this every day. People are going to yell at you, they’re going to tell you you suck, you’re going to have stuff not work. If your why is not very strong, you’re just not going to make it, right?

Dusty: Yeah.

Stefan: That’s money. I like what you said there, Dusty. There’s one thing I really want to drill down on and point out, it’s you said entrepreneurs, real estate investors, financial advisors, maybe insurance too, are like the beginning of entrepreneurship, because you’ve got the marketing, you’ve got the sales. But the product’s done for you. One thing that I think is really, for me, has been a major struggle in entrepreneurship, hardcore, straight up entrepreneurship, is product market fit. You guys get a product, you get a luxury house, you get a piece of crap house or whatever house, and you’ve gotta somehow find that market.

Stefan: What I think is so crazy about Elon Musk, let’s say, is he’s gotta make some stuff out of thin air. He makes a car or something, and he has to hope the market wants that, or he’s gotta do enough research to know that that’s where the lightning’s going to strike next. If you study a guy … You ever heard of Ray Kurzweil?

Dusty: No.

Stefan: Ray Kurzweil, he works for Google, and he’s an inventor. What he realized that being an inventor was … right invention at the wrong time works out to be nothing. So what he did was he started trending inventions in the market and he would predict in the future what people would need at what time, and he started to do that and he got super rich, he got super wealthy, and he’s one of the guys behind AI right now. Ray Kurzweil is a big artificial intelligence dude, because it’s not so much about, do you have the best car? The electric car, GM tried to do that years ago, it didn’t work. Well, Elon Musk, he found that little sliver of the market and he went right in there-

Dusty: But also, remember with Elon, I had buddies that worked for him 14 years ago. His first concept was a Lotus, a lease type of electric car, and that absolutely tanked. Tanked, tanked. He had to switch it to the current Tesla, where it’s like, okay. It’s actually a family car, but it’s kind of sexy as well. He went [inaudible 00:43:57] go full sexy, went nowhere.

Stefan: Right. Yeah, that’s the product market fit. It’s interesting. When I was down in Orange County, the Mercedes wasn’t nice. The Jaguar’s not nice. The Audi’s not nice. It was the Tesla. People are driving these white Teslas everywhere, and that’s the status symbol now. He cracked the code on how to make that thing a status symbol, and all the rich people wanted a Tesla ’cause, I don’t know, it’s cool or whatever. What do you-

Dusty: It’s also a political statement. That’s something interesting that not many people talk about is … What do they call those stupid Priuses? The Prius is one of the ugliest cars on the planet. But now it’s the green car. So Montecito, it’s pretty left leaning in Montecito and Santa Barbara. Prius was like a status symbol, because it’s saying, listen, this is how good I am to the environment. This is what I do. That’s the status. It’s not necessarily a Lamborghini status, it’s a lifestyle political status. Elon provided actually a good looking political status, so that’s a huge component too. It looks nice that’s great, but it’s saying, hey, I’m green.

Stefan: Yeah. He doubled down on that. Dust, we’ve gotta wrap up here in a couple minutes. I just want to ask you some of the questions I love asking everybody, ’cause I think these are just the coolest questions ever. If you go back in time, Dusty, to 15 year old Dusty, and give himself a piece of advice, what would you say to 15 year old Dusty?

Dusty: Oh man, I’m so embarrassed of 15 year old Dusty. I can say the older I get … Every time I think I hit the threshold of, wow, I’m working really hard, the next year I’m like, wow, I didn’t do crap last year. I wasn’t working hard enough. This is working hard, and so on and so forth. I would’ve just showcased to my 15 year old self, listen. You have no idea what hard work is, and I would’ve pushed him 1,000 times harder. I would’ve pushed him to go Ivy League and focus on the right things, don’t screw around with all the crap that takes up time that does absolutely nothing. I’d just tell him to focus and work harder, because it’s very rewarding. I’m happier now than I’ve ever been in my entire life, because I’m more focused and I’m working harder.

Stefan: Yeah. Love that answer. It really is about focus. I know they had Bill Gates and Warren Buffett around the same table, and they asked all these very successful rich people, what is your number key to success? Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, the top five richest people in the world at any given time, both said focus.

Dusty: Yeah.

Stefan: You can’t split your focus. That’s it. What are the top three books that changed your life, Dusty?

Dusty: You know, it’s funny you mentioned Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I read that early on, and that’s a great foundational book. It’s not rocket science, but it’s a great foundational book for how you look at life, money, and finances. I have to throw that in there. For young audiences, that’s a great, great entry level book.

Dusty: Another great book is, gosh. Others … There’s so many good books. I don’t read quite as much as you and Ty, but … Oh, gosh.

Stefan: I don’t know if Ty reads the books, man. He’s got the summaries.

Dusty: Yeah. He skims.

Dusty: I enjoyed a lot of components … I wouldn’t put this top three, but Love Is the Killer App. I thought it was well done. Have you read that?

Stefan: What’s that one about? Love Is the Killer App?

Dusty: It’s before apps, so 15 years ago. It’s not cell phone app, it’s like an application of life, and it talks about how societal relationships can really have you jump forward in success, the love component. But it’s a lot better than it sounds. If someone were to explain that to me, I’d say, oh, it sucks. But it’s actually quite, quite good, and really logistically, how you stay involved with people, grow incredible relationships, and not utilize those relationships just for success, but success always begets success. So that’s really, really, really well written.

Dusty: This is going to be radically controversial, and I don’t mean this … I wish he wasn’t in politics so I can say this, but I read this when I was really young. The Art of the Deal, I liked, because-

Stefan: Great book, great book.

Dusty: Not because of Trump’s statement, but because I think that there’s something within entrepreneurs that actually digs the art of the deal, that digs … I remember one portion where he said he wanted to join this specific social club in New York that it’s impossible to get a hold of, and he would just call once a month to say, as confidently as possible, good afternoon. My name is Donald Trump. I would like to talk to so and so. And of course they told him to pound sand the first eight times. The ninth time, they transferred him through. After that, my name’s Donald Trump, and I’m going to be the next member. And he became …

Dusty: So it’s one of those things where it’s sort of a dichotomy of actually enjoying deals. I don’t want to retire. I enjoy deals. And then the component of, you stand up straight, you have incredible confidence, and you say, I want this. I’m going after this right now.

Dusty: So I thought it was well done. Like I said, I think the Kiyosaki and The Art of the Deal, I’d say have a high schooler read them. I wouldn’t say a 40 year dude read those. But I think it’s pretty cool foundational wisdom.

Stefan: Yeah, well, people always forget that Trump is … He’s a fucking billionaire, dude. He started with a million dollars and he turned it into a billion. Sure. He’s kind of like the modern Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great inherited the best army in the world to conquer the world by 30. Trump inherited the best real estate team in New York, good for him.

Stefan: But dude, Art of the Deal is a good book, good real estate book. Another one that’s good, a good Trump one, is Art of the Comeback. You ever read that one?

Dusty: Yeah, that’s good as well. That’s very good.

Stefan: Yeah, that’s like when the chips are down, and when shit is going down and he’s getting divorced, he did some brilliant stuff, and I don’t think people give him enough credit. He did some really smart stuff. He knows how to make money.

Dusty: On that note, really quick, I will say people crap on him because when you start with a million bucks, that sounds like a lot of money. Yeah. I don’t care where people started. If someone’s successful right now, I don’t care if they were given $10 million. I bet the average person, if they were given $10 million, next year, would have $500,000.

Stefan: They’d be in a cardboard box, bro.

Dusty: [crosstalk 00:49:51] and grown it. I don’t care if people came from money and I don’t care if people have resources. You still have to work your ass off to get really successful. Even to use his daughter as an example, yeah, Ivanka Trump had to have the name of Trump and a ton of money and expertise. You don’t create a clothing line like that without working very, very hard. So I’ve learned to really respect people, even if they came from a place with much, much, much more than me. I assure you they’re working hard.

Stefan: Yeah. Ivanka, she’s amazing, man. She’s, out of the kids, she’s, I think, the smartest, the greatest.

Dusty: Oh, yeah.

Stefan: She’s the empress over there. I’ve had George Ross, Donald Trump’s lawyer, write the foreword to my book, 10 Commandments of Negotiation.

Dusty: Oh, nice.

Stefan: So I’ve heard some stories, and they would send those kids out to the farm in Germany or Russia or wherever, and they had to work. They put those kids to work. They’re not spoiled brats, they’re well behaved. Nobody’s doing cocaine and crashing cars. If you’ve got good kids, you can’t lie about good kids, man. That’s awesome.

Stefan: Dusty, the last question I got here that I love asking everybody is, what’s the one thing that young people need to succeed these days?

Dusty: The ability to be malleable, I think. I read a great book, I don’t even know the name of it, actually, but it was … chopped into each chapter was a different author, actually, so it truly was a book of experts writing each chapter. It had some statistic where 20 years ago … 80% of the jobs that exist now didn’t exist 20 years ago. Imagine if someone that’s 25 years old was thinking from five years old on, oh, I want to be this position. Well, it probably doesn’t exist anymore.

Dusty: So be very, very malleable. I can’t make any promise real estate will be the same, I have no idea. I can assure you my commission’s going to go down in the next 20 years, no chance [inaudible 00:51:39], so maybe I need to be a tad malleable and move into something else. There’s also incredible, incredible hedge funds for the new [eye 00:51:47] buyers. Real estate could change, even though that’s such a fundamental thing. So the ability to basically make hard work your … the foundation, your identity, and then carry that in a malleable fashion.

Dusty: I have a one and a half year old daughter, for instance, and I have a little boy coming. My wife and I talk, okay. How do you parent? A lot of the books we’ve been reading, and I think this is fantastic is … Her name’s Kinsley. Let’s say Kinsley is playing soccer, and she scores a goal. Instead of saying, hey, great job scoring that goal, you scored that goal, you’re the best. Now she’s like, well, the goal is the outcome. If I can’t get the goal, I’m nothing. I say, hey, I saw you on the other side of the field, and you had to run harder and faster than everyone else to get to that ball. You worked your tail off. It didn’t look like you were going to be able to get the ball and you did. You worked hard. I saw you sweating, I saw how hard you worked in practice this past week. That’s what got you that goal, and praising the work ethic instead of the accomplishment, because accomplishments always come out of the work ethic.

Dusty: So I think that the coming generation needs to have just an incredible work ethic, and that will go towards anything. The dollars will always follow that. If you have that work ethic and that’s your id and you can focus it in a malleable fashion depending on what’s happening to the economy, you’re good to go.

Stefan: Yeah, yeah. I’ll always say it, man. You’ve gotta respect the grind. You’ve gotta understand that it’s going to take repetitive actions, you’ve gotta have that work ethic, and then apply it to whatever is malleable in the market. I love that.

Stefan: Dusty, how can people get in touch with you if they want to know more?

Dusty: My phone number. I’m so online it’s not even funny. Search Dusty Baker real estate, and dustybakerrealestate.com is my website. My phone number is on there and my Instagram handle and Twitter handle is @dustyjbaker, the reason being is because there’s a famous baseball player I was named after. His name was Dusty Baker, he managed the Giants in fact.

Stefan: Right.

Dusty: So you look up Dusty Baker, and there’s a buff black dude in a Giants jersey, that’s him, not me, unfortunately.

Stefan: You just play him on TV, man.

Dusty: Exactly, exactly. I can’t tell you how many people walked in who say, oh, you look different. I’m like, yeah, I know. I’m [inaudible 00:54:01].

Stefan: Nice, man. Okay, awesome. Thanks so much for being on the show, Dusty. I really appreciated having you, man. Great conversation, and respect the grind, brother.

Dusty: Hey, thanks so much. Really appreciate it.

Stefan: Thanks, man.